; 191 

fl56 
opy 1 



3B^ Ifjenr^ IPerauson, flD. H. 



Oct. 28. 1892. 



2>r Qd7n^znd ^ndros, 

J6x^ IfDcnr^ jferGUSon, /ID. a. 



"JOestcl^ester Countg t]»istoncal ^ocietg, 
Oct. 28, 1892. 






Gift 
Publisher 

18 05 



Ladies and Gentlemen : 

In addressing the Historical Society of West- 
chester County, I need no apologies for my selec- 
tion of a subject : The Character and Administration 
of Sir Edmund Andros, Lieutenant Governor of 
New York under Charles IL, Governor and Captain 
General of New England under James II. , and also 
of New York, (which for a time was added to that 
dominion,) and finally Governor of Virginia under 
William and Mary. The career of a public servant 
in so many administrations must be of interest to 
all students of American history, especially as in 
Andros we see the contact of Stuart rule with the 
rising spirit of self-government in the Colonies. 
To New-Yorkers the subject should possess a 
peculiar interest, as to Andros is due much of the 
rapid progress and development of the province in 
its early days. He possessed the quality so rare in 
Englishmen, of being able to deal with a non- 
English population justly and fairly, so justly that 
he exposed himself to charges from his hungry 
fellow countrymen of favoring the Dutch to the 
disadvantage of the English. He possessed that 
other faculty, which a few of the greatest English- 
men have possessed with him, of winning the affec- 
tion and good will of a savage people ; and New 
York should always remember gratefully the 
Governor whose wise and just dealings with the 
Five Nations made them a defence rather than a 
danger. 



It has been impossible for me in the course of 
a single lecture to enter into any details of Andros's 
rule in New York, or of his other governments. I 
have tried to analyze the character of the man and 
the conditions of his life, and to follow him in 
rapid outline through his eventful career. I may also 
say, in apology, that, as a Connecticut man, I have 
given especial attention to his connection with the 
history of my native state, so that if my treatment 
of the subject seems ill proportioned, you must 
excuse me on the ground of patriotism; and as I 
am speaking to representatives of a territory, a 
large part of which belonged to Connecticut in the 
time of Andros, I feel that I require still less of an 
apology. 

It is the unfortunate fate of many excellent 
and useful public servants, that, in carrying out 
even desirable measures of State, they are com- 
pelled to render themselves personally unpopular. 
The Crown of Great Britain was generally unfor- 
tunate in the officials who represented its authority 
in the American colonies; but by a strange injus- 
tice of history, many of the utterly bad ones have 
had their faults kindly forgotten or condoned, 
while one of the most able and efficient of them all 
remains pilloried as a tj^rant and oppressor in the 
popular histories of America, and even fails to 
receive the recognition due to his services from his 
English fellow countrymen. 

The caustic pens of the Mathers, the bitter 
spite of the men who controlled public opinion in 
Massachusetts, have drawn for us an Andros whose 
proud, vindictive, persecuting face rises to the 



mind when the name is mentioned. Local patriot- 
ism in Connecticut has created a series of poetical 
myths, or heroic legends, in regard to his adminis- 
tration, which tend to obscure the sober truth of 
history. New York has more grateful memories of 
the Governor who secured and extended her domin- 
ion, and protected her by his wise and steady policy 
from her most dangerous foes. Virginia is less 
grateful, as the unfortunate circumstance that 
Andros quarreled with an ambitious Scotch divine 
has sufficed to obscure the many material benefits 
rendered to that province by his wise administra- 
tion. 

It has been said of a modern political character, 
^'We love him for the enemies he has made," We 
need think none the less highly of Andros from the 
fact that he failed to please the ecclesiastical 
authorities, different as they were in Massachusetts 
and Virginia at that time. 

The true reason why Andros was so hated in 
New England, and failed for so long to obtain jus- 
tice even in New York, was that he was the agent 
for carrying out the plan of the union of the 
colonies. The separatist spirit, that preferred petty 
local privileges to the benefits of union, that spirit 
so destructive to the country all through its history, 
was at that time successful, owing to the entirely 
disconnected circumstance that the consolidation 
was urged by the ministers of a king who was 
misgoverning his people in England. James's 
foolish and wicked projects in England discredited 
his statesmanlike attempt in America; and th 



parochial theory of colonial integrity survived to 
plague the descendants of the men who effected it. 

Edmund Andros was born in London Dec 
G, 1637, of a family that was eminent among the 
adherents of Charles I. His father, Amice Andros, 
was the head of the family ; he possessed an estate 
upon the Island of Guernsey, and was royal bailiff 
of that island. His mother was Elizabeth Skrne, 
whose brother, Sir Robert Stone, was cup-beai-er to 
the unfortunate Elizabeth, the dispossessed Queen 
of Bohemia and Electress Palatine, and was also 
captain of a troop of horse in Holland. 

At the time of Edmund's birth, his father was 
master of ceremonies to the king; and the boy was 
brought up in the royal household, very possibly on 
terms of intimacy with the young princes whom 
he afterwards served and who were only slightly his 
senioi'S. For a time he is said to have been a page 
at court; but if this be true, it must have been when 
he was extremely young, as court life ceased to have 
charms, if not absolutely to exist, after the civil 
war broke out in 10-42, and at this time the boy. 
was but five years old. 

Faithful to the fates of his slaughtered and ot 
his exiled master, we find the lad in Guernsey with 
his father, defending the island manfully against 
Cromwell, and after the fall of Castle Cornet receiv- 
ing his first lessons in the field in Holland under 
Prince Henry of Nassau. (It is a curious fact, 
trifling iu appearance, but possibly not without 
significance, that during the Commonwealth, 
Increase Mather was chaplain of some of the 
troops in Guernsey, and may even at that early 



date have formed the personal dislike which is so 
evident in his later actions). The services of the 
Andros family were so conspicuous, as exhibiting 
theii- constancy and fidelity in this period of trial 
and discouragement, that Edmund with his father 
and his uncle was specially exempted by name 
from a general pardon that was issued to the people 
of Guernsey by Charles II. on his restoration, on 
the ground that they "had to their great credits 
during the late rebellion, continued inviolably 
faithful to his majesty, and consequently have no 
need of being comprised in the general pardon." 

The young soldier, who found himself restored 
to home and safety at the age of 23, had passed a 
stormy youth; his natural boyish loyalty had been 
strengthened bj'' what he had suffered on 
account of it. He had seen those whom 
he most respected and revered, dethroned 
and exiled, living as pen sioners on the grudging 
bounty of inhospitable princes. He had seen 
the legal government of England subverted by 
force of arms by men whose professions of their 
respect for law were never louder than when they 
were overthrowing it, and had seen England ground 
down under the harsh rule of a military despotism- 
He had seen the orderly and regular services of the 
Church of England proscribed, its ministers turned 
out of their parishes to make room, not only for 
severe Presbyterians and iconoclastic Independ- 
ents, but for ranting sectaries, who made the name 
of religion a by- word and a mockery. It cannot be 
wondered that the young cavalier grew up deeply 
impressed with the horrors of rebellion and 



usurped authorit}', aud with the convictiou that 
much might be sacrificed for the sake of lawful and 
regular government, or that, being as he was a 
member of the church that had been proscribed 
and persecuted during the reign of the self-styled 
"godly," he should have been rendered all the 
warmer in his attachment to her orderly and decent 
rights and ceremonies, as by law established. 

It should be remembered that the severity that 
was shown to the Dissenters at the Restoration, 
came largely from their close association with the 
civil war and the government of the common- 
wealth. The cloak of religion had been made to 
cover the overthrow of the liberties of Parliament, 
the killing of the king, and the rule of Cromwell, 
and it is not unnatural, though most regrettable, 
that the victorious cavaliers should have failed to 
make all the proper distinctions between dissent 
and rebellion. 

American historians, especially those who have 
inherited New England traditions, have always 
found it difficult to admit that there could be any 
good ill a man who adhered to the fortunes of the 
Stuarts, or who worshipped in the church over 
which Laud had once been primate. But at the 
present day such ancestral hostihty ought to be 
pretty well extinguished; our opinions of the char- 
acteristics of our Puritan forefathers are undergoing 
now-a-days somewhat radical revision, and it is to 
be hoped that, before long, men will l)e able to see 
that there was no more difference between the 
Englishman who charged with Rupert and the 
Englishman who prayed and fought with Crom- 



well, than there was between the Americans who 
stood behind the stone wall on the Cemetery Hill 
at Gettysburg and the other Americans who 
charged with desperate valor up the hill to their 
death. Each side fought for a principle that was 
dearer to them than life, and, strange to say, the 
warring principles were very much the same. 
Both Cavalier and Puritan were fighting for what 
they deemed lo be the law against those whom they 
deemed to be the violators of it. If we praise the 
men who hated the arbitrary government of Charles, 
it is unfair to condemn those who hated with equal 
fervor the far more arbitrary government of Oliver 
and his major-generals. 

I have dwelt upon these early conditions of 
the life of Andros because they are necessary for a 
comprehension of his character. They show the 
influences which tended to form in him his most 
notable characteristics; loyalty to his sovereign, a 
passion for regularity and legal methods in the 
management of affairs, and a zeal for the Church 
of England. The promotion of the young soldier 
followed quickly, as he continued to display the 
fidelity and capacity of which his boyhood had 
given promise. His uncle's position in the house- 
hold of Elizabeth determined the direction of his 
promotion, 9.nd the nephew was made gentleman-in- 
ordinary to the Queen of Bohemia in 1660, a 
position more honorable than remunerative, which 
was soon terminated by her death in 1662. His 
military training was developed by the war with 
the Dutch, in which he won farther distinction. 
The position he had held in the court of the exiled 



queen won him a wife in 1G71, in the person of a 
young kinswoman of Lord Craven, who had been 
the devoted servant, if not the husband, of Eliza- 
beth. This was the Lord Craven who was the one 
officer of the army that remained faithful to James 
11. to the last, and, though eighty years old, put 
himself at the head of his regiment of body-guards 
to defend the king from insult, when William of 
Orange was already in London. 

The court positions held by Andros in the reign 
of Charles II., are not such as we might have ex- 
pected of a brilliant young cavalier who only cared 
for place and plunder, wine and women; they in- 
dicate rather that passionate devotion to the house 
of Stuart even in misfortune, which the most 
worthless of that line were always able to insiDire, 
devotion generally recompensed bj^ gross ingrat- 
itude. His marriage was evidently, from the prom- 
inence Andros himself gives to it, a high connec- 
tion for a simple country gentleman to make, but 
it did not have the effect of detaching him from a 
soldier's life ; for in the very next year he appears 
as commander of the regiment that had been sent 
to Barbadoes, and had even at that time obtained 
the reputation of being well ver.-ed in American 
affairs. 

One is inclined to suspect that he may have 
corae to New York soon after its capture from the 
Dutch, and there have become acquainted with 
tlie problems that confronted the colonies; but 
there is no evidence that he had done so, and it is 
possible that it was his intimacy with Lord Craven, 
who was interested in America, that led him to 



give careful attention to the subject. His service 
in Barbadoes was short, for we soon find him home 
again with his four companies, which were incor- 
porated in a new dr. goon regiment that was raised 
at this time for Prince Rupert, the son of his 
patroness, the first Englisli regiment ever armed 
with the bayonet. This was the period when the 
proprietors of Carolina were drawing up their re- 
markable feudal constitution, and were dividing 
lauds and titles among themselves. Lord Craven, 
who was one of the pi-oprietors, seeing the interest 
Andros w; s taking in American affairs, procured 
him a patent, conferring upon him the title and 
dignitj^ of a Margrave, together with four baronies 
to support the title, containing some 48,000 acres. 
This gift, however, was only valuable as a token of 
his friend's esteem. 

At his father's death in 1674, he succeeded him 
in his seigniory of Sausmarez, and in the office of 
Bailiff' of Gruernsey. He was not, however, fated 
to dwell in quiet and cultivate his father's acres ; 
for at the end of the second Dutch war, when his 
regiment was mustered out of service, he was 
selected, probably, an account of his familiarity with 
colonial affairs, to receive the surrender of New 
York and its dependencies, in accordance with the 
treaty of peace. The territory thus recovered had 
been granted by Charles II., at the time of its 
first seizure in 1664, to his Ijrother, the Duke of 
York; and Andros, who must have been personally 
known to them both, was now appointed Governor 
General of the Palatine pi-ovince. His commission 
bears date of July 1, 1674. He was well fitted for 



the position. His i-esidence in Holland had made 
him familiar with the people with whom he was 
chiefly to deal, and his acquaintance with Amer- 
ican affairs stood him in good stead in matters of 
general policy, as his administration soon disclosed. 
His connection with the court and with the royal 
family enabled him to act as a confidential agent of 
the Duke. He arrived in New York in November 
accompanied by his wife, and after some formalities 
entered upon his government. His ti'eatment of 
the conquered Dutch was marked with great tact 
and judgment, and rarely has the transfer of a 
colony of one nation to the rule of another been 
effected with so little friction or disturbance. 

But it was of more importance for the future 
history of the country, that he continued the wise 
and judicious policy of his predecessors in regard to 
the powerful and dangerous confederation of the 
Iroquois or Five Nations. It is true that 
this policy was not original with him ; he took 
it as a legacy from the Dutch in 1674 as Nicolls had 
done ten years before; but it may be said that his 
honest and judicious administration of Indian 
affairs did much to save the English colonies from 
being wiped out of existence by a general Indian 
war * If the Iroquois had been roused to go on the 
war-path, as were the unfortunate Indians of New 
England, it is hard to see what could have saved 
the scattered settlements. And again, if Andros, 
by a tortuous and deceitful policy like that of the 
United Colonies toward the New England Indians, 
had thrown the Iroquois into the arms of the 
French, who were only too anxious for reconcilia- 



tion with them, there is little probability that the 
valor of Wolfe would ever have had a chance for 
success on the plains of Abraham. 

As a provincial governor Andros made many 
enemies, but they were mainly in the colonies lying 
adjacent to his own. The patent of New Fork was 
very extensive, and covered territory which the 
neighboring colonies claimed had already been 
ceded to them. Connecticut had vague claims all 
the way to the South Sea, and had been devoting 
its energies during the short space of its history to 
edging along its frontier further and further to the 
westward, in spite of the indignant protests of the 
Dutch. Settlements had been formed on Long 
Island, which was undoubtedly beyond its limits. 
Now, the dispute was between rival colonies of the 
same country ; and, considering the uncertaintj^ of 
the title of Connecticut, Andros must bq allowed to 
have acted with propriety and moderation. He 
succeeded in securing for the Duke, Long Island 
and Fisher's Island, where the Connecticut author- 
ities were attempting to exercise jurisdiction ; but 
the boundary line upon the mainland remained an 
unsettled question even down to our own times. 
At Saybrook, Andros did his duty in asserting 
formally his principal's claim, but was wise enough 
not to press a question which would have caused 
great difficulties between the colonies. 

With the New Jersey settlers he had still more 
difficulty, as they had various grants and patents 
from the Duke himself to plead for their justifica- 

*■■ That this was recognized in Conn., at least, v. letter of Lieut. Col. Talcott, 
Conn. Col. Kev. (1678-89) p., 399. 



tioii; but he pursued a straightforward course, 
standing up, as he was bound to do, for the rights 
of his principal, unless they could be legally shown 
to have been granted away. His passion for reg- 
ular and orderly business methods soon manifested 
itself, and his letters reveal the indignation of a 
man of affairs at the utterly unbusinesslike ways 
of the people with whom he had to do. 

Besides his commission as Governor of New 
York, he had undoubtedly private instructions as. 
to how he should comport himself towards his 
uneasy neighbors, the New England colonies. He 
was anxious to keep on good terms with Con necti- 
cut, as New York was largely dependent upon that 
colony for provisions, and his lettei's to the Con- 
necticut authorities are mostly of a friendly char- 
acter, though written in a tone of superiority which 
undoubtedly gave serious offence. On hearing 
that the people of Hartford were harboring one of 
the regicides, he addressed a very sharp letter to 
the colonial authorities, to which they replied in a 
tone of injured innocence, which is quite edifying, 
asking him for the names of those who had so 
maligned their loyalty. 

It was impossible for the Connecticut repub- 
licans to realize the profound horror which the 
execution of Charles I. had cauFed, and the depth 
of the feeling of hatred and repugnance which the 
perpetrators of that audacious act had inspired. Even 
after William and Mary were on the throne, and 
James II. an exile, it was found that a regicide 
of the character and position of Ludlow 
dared not show himself in England; and during the 



restoration period the feeling was intense. The 
act was regarded by the majority of Englishmen 
at sr.crilege, as well as nmrde r, for it had destroyed 
not only what was called the sacred majesty of the 
Kiug, but also the sacred majesty of the legal gov- 
ernment. To Andros the news that Goffe and 
Whalley were escaping justice by the connivance 
of the authorities, was horrible; and it must have 
suggested doubts,if he had not found them already^ 
of the policy of allowing men who would have been 
excluded from all office in England to rule the 
king's colonies in America. 

A more serious difficulty arose with Massachu- 
setts, whose authorities had ventured to send com- 
missioners to the Mohawks to treat directly with 
them as an independent nation — an act at utter 
variance with the policy of the Dutch and English 
administration, which regarded them as under their 
authority, and therefore liable to plunge the col- 
ony in war. The ostentatious assumption of in- 
dependence by the colony of Massachusetts, its 
claim to be free from the laws of England, and the 
spirit displayed by many of its leaders, which must 
have seemed seditious to the legal mind of Andros, 
made it necessary for him to watch very carefully 
any affairs in which ihey were concerned. His at- 
titude brought upon him the hostility of the col- 
ony, and its authorities asserted and constantly 
reiterated the charge that it was by his connivance, 
and at Albany, that Philip's Indians had procured 
supplies of arms. 

This charge, naturally, was most offensive to 
the loyal spirit of Andros, who had fretted a good 



deal under his forced inactivity in the war, and he 
repeatedly denied it and challenged his accusei-s 
for proof of their assertions, proof which they were 
absolutely unable to supply. The malicious state, 
ment, however, they continued to insinuate, and it 
was long believed by the people of Massachusetts, 
and led, undoubtedly, to much of the hostility be- 
tween them and Andros during his subsequent 
rule in New England. In spite of their aspersions 
he continued steadily in his Indian policy, keeping 
the Mohawks qviiet on one side, and by vigorous 
measures tigainsi the Indians in Maine, protecting 
his personal enemies from inroads upon the other. 
His government of New York was successful; the 
country remained in peaee; its quiet contrasted 
strongly with the troubles in New England, and 
the revenues of the colony were honestly collected 
and wisely administered. To those who hold the 
commonlj^ received opinion of Andros, it will seem 
strange to find that he urged upon the Duke of 
York the desirability of allowing the colonists the 
privileges of a representative assembly (N. Y. Col. 
Doc. II., 235). In November, he returned to Eng- 
land on a leave of absence, remaining there until 
May of the following year. 

While in England he received the honor of 
knighthood, a sign that his labors were appreciated, 
and laid before the Committee for Trade and Plan- 
tations an elaborate statement in regard to Amer- 
ican affairs, which is of great value as exhibiting 
the condition of the colonies, and especially New 
York, at that time. His replies about New England 
are such as we might expect from a man of his 
character and position, and disclose no hostility. 



He says that "the acts of trade and navigation 
are said, and is generally believed, not to be ob- 
served in the colonies as they ought," a statement 
which is certainly moderate ; and also, "I do not 
find but the generality of the magistrates and peo- 
ple are well aifected to the king and kingdom, but 
most, knowing no government but their own, 
think it best, and are wedded and opinionated for 
it. And the magistrates and others in place, chosen 
by the people, think that they are obliged to assert 
and maintain said government all they can, and 
are church members and like so to be chosen, and to 
continue without any considerable alteration and 
change there, and depend upon the people to justify 
them in their actings." For a description of a Puritan 
republic by a royalist and churchman, this is 
remarkably fair and correct. 

The last two years of his government in New 
York were vexed with difficulties with some of the 
English merchants of the province, who were prob- 
ably pinched by Andros's strict and methodical, and 
possibly also narrow and literal, administration of 
the revenue laws. He was openly accused by them, 
and by other discontented parties, to the Duke of 
York as dishonest in his management of the 
revenue, and was summoned home to answer to the 
charges. A special commissioner was sent to in- 
vestigate the accounts, who was absurdly incom- 
petent for the position, but who took the side of 
the merchants in his report (N. Y. Col. Doc. iii. 
302-8). Andros, however, was able to answer 
satisfactorily every charge against him, and boldly 
demanded a thorough examination of all his acts 



as Grovernor. He was examined before Churchill 
and Jeffreys, neither of whom would have been 
likely at that time to let any one go free who had 
defrauded the Duke, and they reported that 
Andros "had not misbehaved himself, or broken 
the trust reposed in him by his royal highness, in 
the administration of his Government, nor doth it 
appear that he hath anyway defrauded or misman- 
aged his revenue." 

Though completely exonerated, it was inexped- 
ient for him to continue in the Governorship, and 
the next five years of his life were passed in Eng- 
land at court, where he obtained an honorable 
position in the Household, and in his estates in 
Guernsey. (N. Y. Col. Doc. ii. 741, Hutch. Col. 
542). In ]685, before the death of Charles II., he 
received a military command once more, being 
made lieutenant-colonel of the Princess Anne's 
regiment of horse in the command of the Earl of 
Scarsdale. In this position he served in the cam- 
paign in the west of England against Monmouth; 
and the silence of his enemies in regard to any 
acts of cruelty at this time is a high tribute, foi* if 
they had known of any, they would undoubtedly 
have held him up for abhorrence as a persecutor. 

The accession of James, under whom he had 
acted previously, made it likely that Andros would 
again receive employment. In spite of the fact 
that he was a devoted adherent of the Church of 
England, the king, who was attempting to restore 
the Roman worship, gave him his full confidence, 
and entrusted him with the work of carrying out a 
project which had been for some time before the 



minds of the Colonial authorities in England — the 
consolidation of New England into a single 
province. This was no new idea of James II., but 
had been discussed for several years, and was a 
plan that had much to recommend it. As early as 
1680 Culpepper had urged the project, and the 
preliminary measure had been adopted of appoint- 
ing a general revenue officer for all the American 
colonies, with the power of selecting his own 
subordinates. The notorious Randolph, a man of 
strict honesty and probity of life, but unable to see 
more than his own side of any question, was appoint- 
ed deputy surveyor general for the New England 
Colonies, and devoted his energies to obtaining the 
forfeiture of the patent of Massachusetts. The as- 
tuteness and bribery of the Massachusetts agents 
were able to defer the evil day until the autumn of 
1684,when the Charter was vacated. This left Massa- 
chusetts in the hands of the crown ; the next prob- 
lem was to obtain the vacating of the more regular 
charters of Connecticut and Rhode Island. Writs 
of quo ivarranto were issued, and sent to the colonies 
respectively, and the submission of Rhode Island, 
after some decent protests, was obtained. 

Andros was chosen by the king for the important 
post of Governor-General, not, as Palfrey insinu- 
ates, because he was peculiarly disagreeable to 
Massachusetts, and so likely to carry out the 
objects of the king ; but because the king knew 
him personally, and knew him to be a man of 
capacity and integrity. It is absurd to suppose 
that James, who was an experienced man of busi- 
ness himself, and more familiar with Colonial affairs 



than any King of England before or since, would 
have intentionally selected a man for the purpose 
who would endanger the success of the undertaking. 
Col. Kirke,who had been actually designated as Gov- 
ernor, had been withdrawn as a persona nongrata to 
New England. It is unnecessary here to enter into 
any arguments to show the advantage that would 
have accrued to the colonies if this judicious plan 
had been successful. New England might have been 
spared much wasteful legislation and ruinous finan- 
cial experiments, and would have been joined to- 
gether in one strong province, instead of being 
composed of several weak and jealous colonies; 
the union, the benefits of which it took the col- 
onies so long to learn, would have been facilitated- 
and a strong and united front would have been pre- 
sented to the French, who were beginning now to 
threaten the existence of the English colonies. The 
Stuarts, it is true, were pensioners and allies of the 
king of France in Europe, but they were his natural 
and inevitable enemies in America, and James, who, 
unlike his brother, felt deeply the shame of his vas- 
salage to the French, was anxious to prevent any ex- 
tension of French power in America. 

Andros arrived in Boston in December, 1686, and 
was received in a most loyal and even enthusiastic 
manner. A Ig-rge portion of the Massachusetts 
people had grown weary of the rule of the oligai- 
chy, and Andros was welcomed as bringing with 
him the pi'otection of English law. His government 
had been constituted in detail in his commission, 
and he at once proceeded to organize it and to levy 
the taxes necessary for its support. Deprived of 



tlie representative assembly in wliieli the sem- 
blance of free government had been preserved, one 
of the towns attempted to resist the tax. The lead- 
ers of the movement were tried fairly and legally, 
and were fined and imprisoned for their attempt at 
resistance. After this no attempts were made to 
dispute the laws of the new government, until the 
revolution, which overthrew all legal authority in 
the colony, broke out in 1689. 

It was very important for Andros that the sub- 
mission of Connecticut should be obtained without 
conflict, as Massachusetts, like New York, was 
largely dependent upon the neighboring colony for 
food. The Connecticut authorities fenced and 
parried, interposed delays, and showed themselves, 
as they always did, clever men of business, exhibit- 
ing qualities that doubtless raised Governor Treat 
and Secretary Allyn in Andros's estimation. Final- 
ly, however, when further resistance was dangerous, 
a letter was sent which could be construed either as 
a surrender or as not a surrender, so that they 
might have a safe rovreat in any case ; and on the 
strength of this letter, Andros assumed the gov- 
ernment. The period that follows is sometimes de- 
scribed as tht^ "usurpation," but there is nothing 
in the history of the times to give one the impres- 
sion that the government of Andros in Connecticut 
was not as regular and legal a government as the 
colony ever had. If Andros had not been over- 
thi-own in Massachusetts by a carefully prepared 
rebellion which left the colonies without a governor, 
it is not likely that either Connecticut or Rhode 
Island would have ventured to resume its charter. 



Andros came to Connecticut in October, 1687, trav- 
elling by way of Providence and New London, and 
from New London across counti-y through 
what are now Salem, Colchester, and Glaston- 
bury, to the Rocky Hill ferry. He was at- 
tended by a "company of gentlemen and gren- 
adiers to the number of sixty or upwards," 
and was met at the ferry by a troop of horse which 
conducted him honorably from the ferry thi-ough 
Waterfield (Wethersfield), up to Hartford. Of the 
transactions at Hartford we have the dramatic story 
of local tradition, the only proof of which was the 
existence of an oak tree said to have been the re- 
ceptacle of the charter. For this romantic story 
there is absolutely no contemporary authority, and 
it is inherently improbable. The charter very pos- 
sibly may have been concealed, and very possibly 
in the Charter Oak, but the incidents of the familiar 
story are unsupported by any contemporary evi- 
dence. The records of the colony contain simply 
the formal but expressive entry; "His Excellency, 
Sir Edmund Andros, Knt., Capt. Grenerall and Gov' 
of his Mat'*"^ Territorie and Dominion in 
New England, by order from his Mat*", James the 
second, King of England, Scotland, France and 
Ireland, the 31 of October took into his hands the 
government of this colony of Connecticut, it being 
by his Mat'*" annexed to the Massachusetts and 
other colonys under his Excellencies Government. 
FINIS." 

Bulkeley, in the "Will and Doom," relates that An- 
dros was met at Hartford by the trained bands of 
divers towns, who united to pay him their respects. 



"Being arrived at Hartford," he contimies, " he is 
greeted and caressed by the Gov" and assist- 
ants, and some say, though I will not confidently 
assert it, that the Gov'" and one of his assis- 
tants did declare to him the vote of the Gen' 
Court for their submission to him. However, after 
some treaty between his Excell^-^ and them that 
evening,' he was, the next morning, waited on and 
conducted by the Gov, Deputy Gov"^, Assist- 
sistants and Deputies, to the Court Chamber, and 
by the Gov"" himself directed to the Gov*"'^ 
seat, and being there seated (the late Gov*", As- 
sistants and Deputys being present & the 
Chamber thronged as full of people as it was capa- 
ble of). His Excellency declared that his Majesty 
had, according to their desire, given "him a commis- 
sion to come and take on him the government o^ 
Connecticut, and caused his commission to be pub- 
licly read." That being done, his Excellency show- 
ed that it was his Majesty's pleasure to make the 
late Gov' and Capt. John Allyn members of 
his council, and called upon them to take their 
oaths, which they did forthwith, and all this in that 
publick and great assembly, nemine contradicenfe, 
and only one man said that they first desired that 
they might continue as they were. 

"After this his Pjxcellency proceeded to erect 
courts of judicature, and constituted the s*' John 
Allyn, Esq. & Judge of the Inferiour Court of 
Common Pleas for the County of Hartford, and all 
others who before had been assistants, and dwell- 
ing in the same County, he now made Justices of 
the Peace for ihe said county. 



"Fromheuce his Excellencj^passod through all the 
rest of the couutys of New Haven, New London 
and Fairfield, settling the Grovernment, was every- 
where chearfuUy and gratefully received, and 
erected the King's Courts as aforesaid, wherein 
those who were before in the office of Grovernor, 
Deputy Governor and Assistants, were made Judges 
of the Pleas, or Justices of the Peace, not one ex- 
cepted nor (fin dly) excepting, but accepting the 
same, some few others being by his Excellency 
added to them in the several Countys, not without, 
but by & with their own advice and approbation, 
and all sworn by the oaths (of allegiance and) of 
their respective offices, to do equal justice to rich 
and poor, after the Laws & Customs of the Realm 
of England and of this his Majesty's dominion. 

"The Secretary, who was well acquainted with all 
the transactions of the General Court, and very well 
understood their meaning and intent in all, delivered 
ered their common seal to Sir E. A." (Conn. Col. 
Doc, 2, 399-91 ) 

Connecticut under Andros passed a period of peace 
and quiet. Governor Treat and Secretaiy Allyn were 
made members of the council and judges, besides 
being intrusted with military commands, and every 
thing went on quietly. There was an evident dis- 
position to favor Connecticut, and every reason 
why it should be favored. We hear of no com- 
plaints against the government or the laws. The 
worst hardship recorded is the settling of intestate 
property according to English law, instead of the 
customs of the colony. It is true that town meet- 
ings were forbidden except once a year, but theie 



were frequent sessions of the courts held, so that 
the citizens were not deprived of all the common 
interests of their lives. With Allyn the Governor 
was on most friendly terms, modifying several reg- 
ulations at his suggestions and entrusting him 
largely with the management of Connecticut af- 
fairs. 

To make a proper catalogue of miseries, our Con- 
necticut historian, Trumbull, is obliged to borrow 
and relate doleful stories from Massachusetts, not 
indeed asserting that they happened in Connecti- 
cut, but certainly producing that impression. 

There were many reasons why Connecticut did 
not resent the government of Andros as much as 
was the case in Massachusetts. In the first place, 
Connecticut had had a lawful government, and a 
law-abiding people ; its charter had not been taken 
away as a punishment, but as a political necessity. 
Massachusetts had been fighting for a system of 
more than questionable legality, and in a spirit 
which might well seem to the royal officials to be 
seditious. Connecticut had had a form of goverL- 
ment in which the people had really controlled pub- 
lic affairs; in Massachusetts the government had 
been in the hands of an oligarchy, who resented 
most bitterly their deposition from power as rob- 
bing them of their peculiar privileges. In Connec- 
ticut, the ecclesiastical system at this time was 
judicious and moderate. '1 he radical tendencies of 
the New Haven colony had been held in check by 
the wiser policy of Hartford. Persecution had 
never been a feature of Connecticut religion, and 
though a superstition common to all parts of the 



world had led to the judicial murder of several poor 
wretches for witchcraft, there had been no general 
outbreak of that delusion. In Massachusetts, An- 
dros found himself opposed and thwarted in every 
way that the angry leaders could devise; in Con- 
necticut, though men were attached to their self-gov- 
ernment and resented its loss, he was received with 
respect and consideration. One is lead to suspect 
that with all their pride in their charter and love 
of their liberties, the leading men of Connecticut 
were shrewd enough to see the advantages that 
they received from the new arrangement. They 
saw the arrogance of their old rivals of the '• Bay 
Colony" humiliated ; they had the pleasure of seeing 
Hampshire County compelled to come to Hartford 
to court, and they felt themselves favored and 
trusted by the Governor. Besides all these con- 
siderations, from the situation of Connecticut, lying 
as it did between Massachusetts and New Yoik, it 
was much to Andros's interest that he should keep 
the colony well disposed, and he took some trouble 
to do so. 

And after all, what do the charges of tyranny 
and misgovernment amount to, even in Massachu- 
setts 1 The real gravamen of all the charges is, that 
the charter had been taken away, and that the [»eo- 
ple of Massachusetts did not enjoy what they had 
always claimed as their birthright the laws of 
England. The personal charges against Andros 
were so frivolous that the colonial agents did not 
dare to put their hands to them when the case was 
brought to trial in England, and confessed by their 
nonappearance that they were false and malicious. 



Tt is not likely that Aiidros wasahvays coiieilintory. 
That a population of dissenting Whigs should put 
difficulties in the way of the public service of the 
Church of England, as by law established, must 
have been to Andros unendurable ; and it is absurd 
to represent his use of the South Church of Boston 
for the religious services of the national church, as 
an instance of malignant despotism. It is far from 
improbable that Andros was compelled against his 
will to be as civil as he was to the American non- 
conformists, because his master was trafficking with 
them in England. While men like Alsop and Rose- 
well and Penn were basking in the favors of the 
Court at Whitehall, a governor of New England, 
even if he had wished, could not venture upon any 
acts of oppression in America. In fact, Andros's 
actions in insisting on the services of the English 
church in Boston may be considered among the 
most creditable in his history, and exhibit the char- 
acter of the man. He risked offending the kins-, 
and did offend the Puritans, in order to show re- 
spect to that historic church of his nation, which 
king and Puritans alike desired to overthrow. 

It is quite probable that Andros was at times 
rough in his language. Uncle Toby's excuse may 
be pleaded for this certainly not uncommon fault of 
military men. Besides, there were a good many 
things that must have made the use of strong lan- 
guage a relief. He did not have a very high appre- 
ciation of Indian deeds. Few honest men to-day, 
legal or lay, would differ from him. He reviled 
the palladium of New England liberties, the towns! 
Perhaps he did. In this he was in advance of his 



age. He reorganized the court system, and the es- 
tablished table of fees, and changed the method of 
proving wills. The blame is not his, but, if any 
one's, it should lie upon the king who established 
the provmce, or the council who passed the laws. 
The truth seems to be that Andros was shocked and 
scandalized at the loose, happy-go-lucky way of do- 
ing business that had, up to this time, served the 
colonies, and he labored in New England, as he had 
in New York and as he afterwards did in Virginia, 
to give his province a good, efficient, general sys- 
tem of administration. What made it objection- 
able to the colonies was not that it was bad, but that 
it was different from what they had had. The man 
who does his arithmetic upon his fingers, would 
count it a hardship if he were compelled to use the 
much more convenient process known to better edu- 
cated men. The case was the same in New Eng- 
land. They did not want to be improved ; they had 
no desire for any more efficient or regulai* adminis- 
tration than they were accustomed to. They pre- 
fered managing their own affairs badly than having 
them done for them, were it ever so well. It is not 
difficult for us to appreciate their discontent. 

It is harder for us to put ourselves in Andros's 
place, and to feel with him the disgust of an exper- 
ienced and orderly administrator at the loose and 
slipshod methods that he saw every where ; the in- 
dignation of the royal servant of the king at hard- 
ly concealed disloyalty and sedition; the resentment 
of a devoted member of the national church of Eng- 
land at the insults heaped upon it b}' the men 
who had failed in their previous attempt to destroy 
it. 



Andros failed to coneiliate Massafbusetts. An 
angel from heaven bearing King James's commis- 
sion would have failed, A rebellion against his 
power was carefully prepared, doubtless in concert 
with the Whig leaders in England ; and when the 
news of the English Revolution came, Massachu- 
setts broke out also, arrested the Governor, 
destroyed the government, and set up an irregular 
government of its own. The object of this revo- 
lution was evidently to overthrow the Dominion of 
New England, and to resume separate colonial inde- 
pendence before the new English authorities had time 
to communicate with Andros. There is no reason 
to think that Andros would have tried to hold the 
country for James. His respect for the law was 
with him the reason for his loyalty to the crown, 
and though he was personally attached to the 
Stuarts and had acted under James for many 
years, he was Governor of the Dominion not for 
James Stuart, but for the King of England. 

The popular leaders were indeed afraid, not that 
Andros would oppose the Revolution in England, 
but that he would accept it, and be confirmed by 
William and Mary in the same position he had held 
under James, and that thus the hated union of the 
colonies would be perpetuated. Their revolution 
was only too successful. They had their own way, 
and the events in Salem in 1691 were a commentary 
on the benefits of colonial autonomy. 

In Rhode Island and Connecticut, the old char- 
ters wer-e re-assumed. In Connecticut, as there had 
been little break when Andros came, so now 
there was little trouble when he departed. Secre- 



taiy Allyn had managed the affairs of the colony 
before the usurpation. Secretary Allyn had been the 
chief intermediary between Andros and the people. 
Secretary Allyn continued to manage Connecticut 
affairs after Andros had gone. The parti^ularists 
succeeded in getting possession of the govei'ument, 
in spite of the opposition of a strong minority, and 
Connecticut, like Massachusetts, returned to her 
insignificant but precious independence. 

Andros was kept in prison in Boston by the rev- 
olutionary government for nearly a year, and then 
sent to England, where, as has been said, no one 
appeared against him. Hutchinson complains 
that the Massachusetts agents were misled by their 
counsel. Sir John Somers. When one considers 
that Somers was one of the greatest lawyers the 
bar of England has ever kuown, one is inclined to 
believe that he knew his clients' case was too bad 
to take into court. 

The government of William and Mary found 
nothing to condemn in Andros's conduct,and showed 
their appreciation of his services by sending him 
out, in 1692, as governor of Virginia. Into his suc- 
cesses and his failures there, I shall not enter. 
Suffice it to say, that they both displayed the same 
features of character as we have already remarked : 
intelligent aptitude for business, a passion for reg- 
ular and orderly methods, and a detestation of 
meddling ecclesiastics. 

He left behind him a pleasant memory in Vir- 
ginia among the laity, and among those of the 
clergy who were not under the influence of Com- 
missary Blair. The quarrel was an unfortunate 



one, as Blair, though meddlesome and dogmatic 
was working for the higher interests of the Colony 
but the evidence he himself supplies of the temper 
of his proceedings, explains Sir Edmund's anti- 
pathy. 

He was recalled to England in 1698, and worsted 
in his contest with Blair, having been unfortunate 
enough to bring upon himself the resentment of 
the Bishop of London. The record of the trial is 
preserved at Lambeth and has been printed in this 
country, and a perusal of it will convince most 
readers that Sir Edmund received very hard usage^ 
and might have complained, in the words of the 
lawyer who was worsted in a contest with Laud? 
that he had been "choked by a pair of lawn-sleeves.' 
The rest of his life was passed at home. The 
government still showed their confidence in him by 
appointing him Governor of Gruernsey. He lived 
quietly, passing a peaceful old age, and died in Feb- 
ruary, 17^1, at the age of seventy-six. His continued 
interest in the welfare of the Colonies, in the service 
of which he had passed so many years, is evidenced 
by the fact that his name appears among the mem- 
bers of the Society for the Propagation of the Gos- 
pel in Foreign Parts. 

Removed from the prejudices of his own day and 
generation, and regarded in the impartial light of 
history. Sir Edmund Andros appears not as the 
cruel persecutor that he seemed to the Mathers and 
the Sewalls, nor as the envious Sanballat that 
Blair's fervent Scotch imagination pictured him, 
but as a simple-hearted, loyal English gentleman, 
of the best type of those Cavaliers, devoted to 



church and king, who, in their horror at the results 
of Puritanism and hberalism in England, were will- 
ing to sacrifice if necessary some degree of personal 
liberty in order to secure the dominion of law. 

Judging from what we know of him, we should 
have looked to see him— had he been in England 
instead of in America at the time of the Revolution 
—by the side of many fellow Tories maintaining 
the liberties and the religion of his country. In 
America, far from the scene of conflict, his duty 
was to support the government of the king; but 
the claim of the colonists that by arresting him 
they prevented him from "making an Ireland 
of America," is disproved by his immediate and 
loyal acceptance of the results of the revolution, 
and by the confidence that the new government 
immediately reposed in him. 

It is gratifying to notice that at last his char- 
acter and services are beginning to be better ap- 
preciated in the provinces over which he ruled; 
and we may hope that in time the Andros of 
partisan history will give place, even in the pop- 
ular narratives of Colonial affairs, to the Andros 
that really existed, stern and proud and uncompro- 
mising, it is true, but honest, upright, and just, a 
loyal servant of the crown, and a friend of the best 
interests of the people whom he governed. 



011 697 452 6 # 



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